Rocking Babies Asleep May Keep Them Awake

July 4, 1991|The New York Times

Rocking a baby to sleep may not be the best routine if the child wakes frequently during the night, new research suggests.

A study reported in the journal Pediatrics found that babies whose parents stayed with them as they fell asleep woke up crying more frequently during the night than infants whose parents let them fall asleep by themselves.

Waking during the night is considered normal in the first six months when infants need frequent feedings, but beyond that age it is often just a disturbance.

The study supports the notion that babies learn how to fall asleep independently. If parents are present, the baby establishes an association between parental presence and falling asleep, the scientists said, so when the infant wakes at night he or she may need the same condition to return to sleep.

Dr. Robin Adair, a pediatrician at Franciscan Children`s Hospital in Boston who led the study, said parents should put a wide-awake baby to bed and let him cry.

Rather, she said, parents whose baby awakes frequently should consider putting the baby in the crib and leaving the room when he is a little drowsy, before he is sound asleep.

The scientists said the results may be clinically important because if night waking is learned, then it may be unlearned or prevented.

The study was based on interviews with 122 mothers from Burlington, whose healthy, full-term infants ranged in age from 8 to 12 months.

They were asked if a parent was usually doing any of the following things when their child fell asleep: feeding the child, rocking, singing, lying down with the child or simply staying in the child`s room.

They also were asked to keep a log of how frequently the child woke up during the week. About a third of the mothers said a parent was routinely present when the infant went to sleep.

Night wakings are considered frequent at seven or more per week.

Dr. Richard Ferber, director of the center for pediatric sleep disorders at Children`s Hospital in Boston, said the findings were interesting, but added that parents should not shun rocking their newborns to sleep in the first few months.